


Underswap but it’s not

by AlexTheNonBinary



Series: Undertale AU's and stuff [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: But most importantly..., Chara may come into the story in the future, Everyone Needs A Hug, Flowey is a decent monster-, Frisk and Flowey are becomeing friends, Frisk and Flowey are working together, Frisk has PTSD, Frisk is Depressed Because Of Genocide, He got Frisk’s Bacc, He reads faces, I came up this this at midnight, I'm an impulse writer help, I'm working off of that, Implied Future SAVED Asriel Dreemurr, Nonbinary Chara & Frisk (Undertale), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pacifist Timeline, Papyrus is struggling to be lazy, Post-Aborted Genocide Run, Sans Is Best Big Bro, Sans can cook, Sans centric, Sans doesn't remember timelines and Resets, Sans in canonically deppressed, deals were struck for this to happen, he attacc, he protecc, idk - Freeform, implied past genocide, papyrus is adorable, pasifist run, protect him at all costs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26121259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexTheNonBinary/pseuds/AlexTheNonBinary
Summary: Old title: Responsible Sans And Lazy Papyrus?“Sans! Pick up your sock!” Papyrus yelled into Sans’ room. The smaller skeleton rolled over on his bed and groaned.“Noooo! Five more minutessssss,” He whined tiredly. Papyrus sighed and skull-palmed. Honestly, how was this lazybones older than him?“What’s so good about lazing around all day, anyway?” Papyrus whispered under his breath. Sans, however lacking ears, heard clearly and smiled wider.“Well, why don’t you try it, bro?” Sans suggested, looking up from his bed lazily. Papyrus looked at him blankly, and for a moment Sans thought he had broken his brother.“Sans! Why would I? Nothing would get done around here!” Papyrus shouted, his eyes - how the heck he had them was a mystery - bulging out of his sockets as he glared his brother down.“How about… I pick up my sock if you try being lazy for a week?” Sans suggested.“And… move it to your room? And leave it there?” Papyrus asked, disbelief written all over his face. Sans nodded and sat on the side of his bed. Before the smaller skeleton could even finish getting up, Papyrus agreed. “Deal.”And so began lazy Papyrus and responsible Sans.
Relationships: None
Series: Undertale AU's and stuff [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939738
Comments: 6
Kudos: 83





	1. Day 1, Part 1 - Spaghetti With Undyne

Had Sans known he’d have to fill in for Papyrus’ cooking lesson, sentry duties, and everything else, he may not’ve struck the idea of being lazy up into Papyrus’ mind. Undyne was a handful, to say the least. Eh, at least she laughed at his puns… sometimes. Other times it was a tomato to the face or a glare of disapproval.

Oh well, at least he knew why Papyrus always managed to burn his spaghetti and spent an hour or so cleaning the kitchen when he tried. He’d have to teach Papyrus how to cook things that are _edible_. Maybe a quiche? Those were simple enough.

“SANS! PAY ATTENTION!” Undyne yelled aggressively. Sans flinched at the loudness of her voice before turning around and looking at the violent fish-woman.

“Yeah, Undyne?” Sans groaned. She’d already broken the (warm?) fridge handle after roughly pulling it open to get the sauce ingredients, and he was kind of worried for himself.

“Mash ‘em!” Undyne screeched, pointing to the innocent tomatoes that had done nothing wrong.

“What did the poor tomatoes ever do to you?” Sans glared accusingly.

“You can make ketchup with them,” Undyne shrugged. Safe to say, those tomatoes were basically a liquid after that.

“What the hell…” Undyne whispered wide-eyed, watching as Sans somehow managed to… consume? the tomato residue on his hands. Sans looked at Undyne, slightly confused.

“What? Never seen a skeleton eat before?” Sans asked, tilting his head slightly and revealing the splatter of tomato mush on his cheek. 

“Uh, you a little bit on your cheek… _and how did you make less mess than Papyrus, I’ve never seen someone beat the tomatoes into mush so quickly…_ ” Undyne whispered to herself, her hand over her mouth as she tried to comprehend what just happened.

“Oh, do I?” Sans said, looking at his cheek somehow. “I guess you could say… I couldn’t quite _ketchup_ to its speed?” Sans joked, pulling out his bottle of ketchup from his pocket. Undyne blinked.

“That was terrible,” she said, looking at the skeleton disapprovingly. Sans shrugged and took a sip from his ketchup bottle.

“How does that even work?” Undyne asked, pointing at the ketchup and then at Sans.

“... Me drinking?” Sans asked, looking genuinely confused. Undyne nodded. “Like everyone else?”

“But... You’re a skeleton. You don’t have a tongue. Or lips. How do you eat and how doesn’t it fall right through you when you do? Papyrus always says he doesn’t know when I ask him.”

“Well, actually…”

___One explanation of skeleton magic later___

Undyne’s brain had fried. She’d tried to understand, really, she had, but Sans had gone super in depth about how a skeleton’s magic allows them to ‘summon’ (Sans had said something really complicated there, but Undyne liked ‘summon’ better) a human-ish outer casing for their bones at will, including tongues so they could eat, taste, and talk.

Sans chuckled at the steaming fish on the floor. Had he not known any better, he may’ve thought she had been knocked out. He so badly wanted to sit down at the table and have a nice nap, but he agreed that he would fill in for Papyrus, and Undyne would definitely rat him out for being lazy if he did.

Speaking of Papyrus, Sans thought he should call him and see how he was going about trying to be lazy. So he did.

_Ring… ring… ring…_

“Hello, brother!” Papyrus’ shout erupted from Sans’ phone.

“Hey, bro. How’s ‘being lazy’ going for you?” Sans asked, using his magic to turn on the stove slightly and boil the water.

“It’s going surprisingly well, it’s so calm!” Papyrus chuckled through the phone. Sans’ ever-present grin widened at his little brother’s statement. “What about you? You haven’t decided to go to Grillby’s, have you?”

“Not this time, bro. Though, there is some _fried fish_ on the floor here.”

“Why do I get the nagging feeling that was a pun?”

“Me? Puns? Neeeevverrrrrrrrr.”

“Sans.”

“Something _fishy_ about me?”

“Sans, no.”

“ _Water_ you saying?”

“Sans, I swear to Asgore.”

“I don’t have the _guts_ for that, bro,”

“SANS! IF YOU MAKE ONE MORE PUN-,”

“K, love you bro, gotta go bye!” Sans rushed, quickly ending the call in favour of keeping his nonexistent ears intact. He looked at the stove and noticed the water had boiled.

It took a while for Sans to locate the pasta box (who puts food in their roof?), but when he did, he poured about half the packet into it, enough for himself, Undyne, and some leftovers to take home to Papyrus.

He looked at Undyne, who was still on the floor, steaming, and chuckled to himself. Papyrus was the same when Sans had tried explaining why skeletons need sleep, despite not having organs. Those two were surprisingly similar. A fish and a skeleton, best friends. Who would’ve thought?

Turning back around, Sans went to turn down the stove, but the nob didn’t move. He tried again, the same result. He glared at it accusingly, summoning a gaster blaster. Suddenly, the nob moved and Sans could turn off the stove, dismissing the attack before Undyne ended up with a giant hole in her wall.

He silently wondered how many times Undyne had burnt down her house thanks to that stove as he drained the spaghetti. When it had finished draining (which took a surprisingly long time), Sans found a couple of plates and took out the container Papyrus had insisted he brought for any leftovers.

Sans put the drained noodles back into the pot to keep them as warm as possible as he mixed the sauce, adding a small amount of spices and herbs, as his own mini experiment with the food.

Undyne finally stopped steaming and her brain began turning its cogs again. She was welcomed back into the realm of the living with the smell of not-burning spaghetti and the sight of Sans’ back. The said skeleton turned around, two plates of spaghetti topped generously with sauce in hand and a smirk-like smile.

“Hey, Undyne. I thought you had _pasta_ away,” Sans said, a teasing undertone in his voice. Undyne jumped up with her complementary “NYAAA!!!” Of annoyance.

“You finished without me!” She cried, holding a spear in her hand and swinging it around wildly, unaware of Sans’ slight change in expression.

“Wow, Undyne, keep swinging that thing and I’ll be nothing but _spaghetti stands_ ,” Sans joked, though there was a heavy seriousness behind the sentence - he was very cautious when it came to his HP, after all, not that Undyne knew that.

“Pfttt,” Undyne chuckled, letting her magic spear dissipate, “that was awful.”

“I know,” Sans replied simply. He put the two plates of spaghetti on either side of Undyne’s table, beckoning the fish over with a small wave of his hand. “Here, try it,”

Undyne looked at the pasta suspiciously - she had always ended up a little queasy when she ate her pasta, so she assumed she was allergic, but what harm could one more plate do? She sat down and took out her fork (sharpened, of course) to begin eating, and Sans did the same.

Her eyes widened and she began shoveling her meal down, causing Sans to blink in surprise, having yet to have eaten anything.

“Uh, Undyne? You good there?” Sans asked, tilting his head in confusion. “You should slow down, eating too quickly might cause you to-,”

Sans was interrupted by Undyne choking wildly on her pasta. Sans sighed - he had done the same many times for Papyrus when he cooked spaghetti. He could never tell his little bro that his cooking was indescribable in a bad way.

“Holy cow, Sans, this is amazing!” Undyne exclaimed when she finished choking. Sans’ eye sockets widened slightly, not expecting that reaction.

“Uhh, thanks.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Help this story is out of control already-

Sans never felt so bored - what did Papyrus do at his post all day? Recalibrate his puzzles?

_ ‘Maybe I could look over them,’ _ Sans thought,  _ ‘probably more interesting than sitting doing nothing and trying not to sleep, anyway.’ _

So, with nothing else to do, Sans did exactly that. He walked over, passed the frozen spaghetti, not bothering to read the note he’d seen a hundred times walking to his post when Papyrus refused to let him use his shortcuts. He passed Snowdrake on the way, who said hello. “Heya, Sans, what ‘cha doing?”

“Pap and I agreed to swap places for a while. I regret it to the  _ bone _ , though,” Sans replied, sighing dramatically. Snowdrake chuckled.

“Just the idea of your brother being lazy gives me the  _ chills, _ haha!” Snowdrake laughed at its own pun. Sans chuckled with it. 

“ _ Ice _ pun, pal,” Sans responded.

“Speaking of puns, isn’t your show at MTT resort soon? How’re you gonna get there on time?” Snowdrake reminded. Sans clicked his fingers.

“Oh yeah, forgot about that! Thanks, Snow, see ya around!” Sans said over his shoulder as he turned around and waved. As soon as he was out of Snowdrake’s sight, he teleported to MTT resort. 

_______________

Papyrus was bored. He had nothing to do because Sans wouldn’t recalibrate his puzzle, if you can even call it that… “A piece of paper does not count as a puzzle, Sans…” he muttered. “Maybe I could watch TV? Yeah, I’ll do that,”

So, begrudgingly moving from his room, he walked down the stairs and sat on the couch. “Is Mettaton’s show on today?” Papyrus asked aloud, flipping to the channel. The screen was suddenly filled with Mettaton.

“Hello, my beautiful viewers! You’d probably love to see more of me, but that’s not on the schedule! No, it is time for our comedy act, Sans the Skeleton!” Mettaton exclaimed to the cameras, before rolling out of view. The cameras then zoomed in on one familiar skeleton.

“SANS!?” Papyrus exclaimed in surprise. Sans had a job other than a sentry? And was employed by  _ the Mettaton himself _ !? “What the heckie heckie heck?”

“Heya, everyone.” Sans smiled at the camera, winking his left eye. “So, yesterday, my brother and I struck up a deal…”

Papyrus watched Sans’ show as he told stories and made jokes here and there. He actually found himself laughing along with the audience, even as he cringed at some of the terrible puns. He had forgotten how charismatic his brother could be, but there was something in Sans’ expression.

“ _ He looks tired… _ ” Papyrus mumbled, “Well, he is usually lazing around all day like usual, I shouldn’t be surprised,” He shrugged it off. Before the tall skeleton knew it, the show was over and Sans was waving to his audience as he walked off stage. Still, Papyrus couldn’t shake the weird, uncomfortable feeling that he was missing  _ something _ in his soul.

_____________

“Well done, Sans!” The robotic voice of Mettaton complimented. “But, you weren’t as good as usual. Get some rest, okay?”

“I’m good, ‘Ton, just started actually doing things like a  _ responsible  _ big brother takes more out of you than you’d think, I was at Undyne’s filling in for Papy’s cooking lesson before I got here,” Sans smiled lazily, letting his hands fall into his pockets.

“Undyne? As in, Captain of the Royal Guard Undyne?” Mettaton asked, his rectangular body leaning forward in interest. Sans nodded, eyesockets closing tiredly. “What’s she like? Sans, I want all the details. How does she act? What does she wear? What does she look like? I’ve never seen her without her armour.”

“‘Ton, please, I know you love gossip but please, I’m  _ bone _ -tired,” Sans groaned, putting his gloved hand to his face. “Maybe you could meet my bro, he adores your show. He’d be more than happy to tell you everything about her,”

“Fineeeee,” Mettaton whined. Sans chuckled and walked away, once again out of sight, teleporting back to Snowdin.

___________

“Okay, lady, I’m here,” Sans chuckled, knocking against the giant purple door behind him. He heard shuffling on the other side,then the sound of material sliding against smooth stone,

“Hello, my friend,” the voice replied, sounding somewhat less enthusiastic than usual. Sans shrugged it off, he could be wrong - he relied on reading faces, after all.

“Okay, so, why did the skeleton need a friend?” Sans asked, leaning against the door.

“Because he was feeling bonely? Are you all right, my friend? You’ve never repeated a joke before,” the voice asked, concern clear even through the door.

“Ah, sorry. My brother and I made a deal, he’s trying to be lazy and I’m trying to be responsible,” Sans chuckled.

“I don’t understand. You may seem, as you say, ‘lazy’, but you are already a responsible brother, are you not? You may not realise, but I remember all of the jobs you told me you have to pay for the bills of your home. Honestly, it’s worryingly sweet all you do for your brother.”

“Um, knock-knock,” Sans said, quickly changing the subject. He heard a defeated sigh from the other side.

“Who is there?”

“Dishes,”

“Dishes who?”

“Dishes a very bad joke, heh heh!” Sans’ chuckles faded when he noticed the lack of enthusiasm from the lady on the other side. “Hey, you okay, lady?”

“Please… If a human ever comes through this door… please, promise me, that you will watch over them, and protect them, will you not?” The voice asked. Sans’ eyelights faded away in an instant, a distant familiarity compelling him to agree.

“Uh, sure…”

“Promise me.”

“Okay, okay… I promise.”

________________

Frisk hugged Toriel, almost not wanting to let go. Almost. Toriel let them go and walked away, taking a quick glance back to the child before fleeing back to her home. Frisk smiled at the familiar actions of their mother and turned to the door, filled with determination.

They opened the door and strode through, excited to encounter Flowey. They’d finally come up with a reply that would let him know that he’d been heard again and again. Frisk was determined to save him, no matter how many resets it took.

Finally, they arrived at the grass bed, and by extension, Flowey. Frisk smiled as Flowey teased them for being merciful.

“Asriel,” Frisk said simply. Flowey froze and looked at them in disbelief. “I’ll save you this time, I swear, I’ll stop you from turning back into a flower!”

“...” Flowey fell silent, looking at the grass beneath him. “Is… is this a trick? To give me hope and tear it away from me?”

“No! I’ll use my determination and I’ll save you! I swear!” Frisk exclaimed, holding their fist out in front of them. Flowey looked at Frisk, hope and disbelief in his eyes.

“R...Really? You’d do that?” Flowey asked, leaning forward. Frisk nodded with determination. Flowey smiled. “Okay. I’ll try to help in any way I can, I know all the ins and outs of the underground, I’ll guide you.”

Frisk was surprised - Flowey never offered to help them in any way whatsoever. Maybe because he now has hope? Flowey climbed out of the ground, looking rather bare without the dirt covering his vines. Frisk held out their arm for Flowey, who quickly used his vines to cling onto their arm.

“Let’s go, Frisk,” Flowey said, and the two headed out for Snowdin.

___________

Sans had to drag his brother off the couch after he managed to  _ fall asleep _ . “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that you finally discovered sleep, bro, but this is ridiculous. You have puzzles! What if a human comes through here? Don’t you want to be there to capture them?” 

No response. Sans sighed and gave up, teleporting them to Papyrus’ room. Sans placed the larger skeleton on the racecar bed and the blanket over him, sighing. Papyrus must’ve really been overworking himself if the provocation of his puzzles or a  _ human _ didn’t get him up.

Nevertheless, Sans teleported to his post. He was surprised when the soft but oddly familiar crunch of snow beneath feet echoed through the trees. Without thinking, he teleported into the trees and watched. 

There was a kid, shorter than himself, wearing a pink and purple-striped shirt, wearing brown shorts and matching shoes with a single flower monster wrapped around their right arm. He couldn’t quite decipher if the kid was a human yet, but judging by what the lady behind the door said, they probably were.

He walked up slowly behind them, misstepping and stepping on the thick branch which was crushed loudly. The kid’s head seemed to perk up excitedly, while the flower monster whipped its… head? around to Sans. It seemed to relax after seeing him, confusing the skeleton. The kid turned their head to the flower and said something he couldn’t make out before almost skipping to the gate.

Sans sighed and followed, feeling somewhat at ease. He walked up to the human and held out his hand. Suddenly there was a warmer hand on his own as a ridiculous fart sound erupted. The kid burst into snickers and their flower companion just groaned disapprovingly.

“You turned around before I said too… weird. Anyway, you’re a human, right? That’s hilarious. I’m Sans, Sans the skeleton. I’m actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now, but-,” Sans paused. He was supposed to be responsible. He’d have to ‘capture’ the kid, even if it meant just looking after them. “Actually, why don’t you come with me? I need to ‘capture’ you,”

Sans winked at the human, who suddenly looked confused, along with the flower. “What? Did you expect me to let you roam free? Come on, I’ll take you to my place. Capturing may be my job, but I honestly don’t care that much. My brother, however, is very interested in humans, but don’t worry, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

The monster and human looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Sans with an eerily familiar determined nod.


	3. Day 3, because two days were just Papyrus sleeping and Sans looking after him.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Panic attack warning.  
> Frisk needs a hug but also gets flashbacks genocide timelines.

Papyrus was surprised to wake up in his bed with a familiar presence next to him. He was  _ certain _ he had fallen asleep on the couch! He groggily opened his sockets and looked towards the presence next to him, and saw his brother reading to himself. Sans noticed the movement and closed his book, glancing towards Papyrus.

“Oh, Papy! You’re awake, that’s good. You really gave me a scare there, pal. You’ve been asleep for two days,” Sans said, standing up and walking towards the door. “I’ll make you some breakfast, ‘kay?”

“M…Nyeh? Oh, um, yeah,” Papyrus replied, feeling tired and confused. He just wanted to lay back down and continue his nap where it’s warm. Papyrus then realised that he, in fact, does  _ not _ have skin, therefore cannot feel warmth. Why was he so comfortable? He could literally just blink… and go back… to… sleep…

  
  


“Okay, bro, I bet you’ll  _ relish _ this- meal…?” Sans blinked in his brother's doorway. Papyrus had already fallen back to sleep. Sans facepalmed. “Awww, come on! I had the perfect pun!”

Nevertheless, Sans sighed and closed the door quietly. Sans walked downstairs, one hand in his pocket as he balanced the tray of food effortlessly. “Kiddos! Want some food?”

Frisk came running from their makeshift room on the couch and ran up to Sans, picking up the pot Flowey was in as they did. “He still hasn’t woken up?”

“Actually, he has, he fell right back into sleep, but he has,” Sans chuckled. Frisk’s face remained worried. “Really, kid, he’ll be fine. No need to worry, ‘kay? He’s got the most resilient immune system I’ve seen in any monster.”

“Okay…” Frisk mumbled, looking away a little. Sans looked at them in concern, reaching out his gloved hand to Frisk’s shoulder. They leaned into it, looking for comfort.

“Kid, are you okay?” Sans asked, “Let’s sit down and we can talk,” 

Frisk nodded and climbed back onto the couch, and Sans followed on the other side. He pinched a pillow and put in on his lap, motioning Frisk to lay their head there. They put Flowey down on the ground, ignoring the huffs of betrayal, and did as instructed, instantly curling into themself. 

“Okay, what’s up?” Sans asked. Frisk stayed silent for a few moments, and Sans sighed patiently. They had only known him for two and a half days, two of which were just him looking after Papyrus. Opening up took time, he knew that well.

“W...When I was on the surface… I hurt a lot of people. I wanted to know what would happen, but-,” Frisk hiccuped, then dissolved into quiet tears. Sans was surprised, the kid’s LV was still only 1. What were they talking about?

“It’s okay, I’ll wait for you. Why did you want to know what would happen? Your actions are permanent, aren’t they?” Sans asked. Frisk fell still and silent, and Sans suddenly felt his old research weighing down on him. “Frisk…?”

“Th-They’re not. I have this power that allows me to restart the world, change things, do new things without consequence, and...” Frisk trailed off, shaking. Sans’ eyesockets darkened.

“Kill?” He asked monotonously. It wasn’t hard to tell when something needed filling in, especially for a read-the-crowd kinda guy. Frisk nodded weakly. Part of Sans wanted to know exactly what they did, but the rest of him wanted to forgive them. They obviously regretted it. “Did it happen in the Underground?”

Again, Frisk nodded. Sans sighed. “Come ‘ere, kid. Don’t do that again, okay?”

Suddenly, Frisk spoke, “You were there too… I k… I killed you, too. I hated it, I am so, so sorry, Sans, I’m so, so sorry!”

Sans felt his defensive magic jolt in response as the kid snuggled even further into him, a phantom pain of sorts now slicing into his rib cage. “Kid, I…”

“You hate me now, don’t you? Because I killed everyone?” Frisk asked, looking up at Sans tearily.

“...No, no I don’t. You’ve been keeping this balled up inside you for a long time, haven’t you? You killed people, and sure, I don’t forgive you for that, but I think you can do a little better, even if you don’t think so, okay?” Sans said. Suddenly, Frisk started crying more, and Sans simply rubbed their hair soothingly, letting them cry it out.

Eventually, they fell asleep, likely exhausted from the crying and Sans quietly removed their head and pillow from his lap and softly propped them up, covering them with the blanket on the back of the couch.

“You really forgive them? Just like that?” Flowey asked, confused. Sans looked towards the flower monster and shook his head.

“I never said I forgive them, and I don’t, I don’t think I ever will. But they are young, and because they  _ can _ do things without consequences, it makes sense they’d try everything. Even if that isn’t exactly… good.” Sans explained, picking up the pot Flowey was in, “where’d you want to sleep, buddy?”

“Papyrus’ room,” Flowey said without hesitation. Sans paused for a moment, but nodded and headed up to his brother’s room.

“You seem pretty certain. I’m not sure if I can trust you with my brother, though,” Sans wondered aloud. Flowey turned to him.

“Don’t worry, you smiley trashbag, I’m not allowed to hurt him. Frisk would just load their last save if I tried,” Flowey grumbled, crossing his leaves like arms. Sans raised a bone-brow.

“You’re talking about this like it’s some sort of video game,”

“That’s how reseting works. If Frisk dies, they can choose to reset or continue. If they do something they regret, they can load at their last save point. The ability is unique to their soul trait, Determination.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“You may be the only one who might be able to help them succeed.”

_____________

Papyrus awoke with a start, feeling confused yet comfortable. He shot upwards and looked around, his eyesockets landing on a familiar flower. “Flowey..? What are you doing here?”

“Hi Papyrus! How are you?” Flowey asked, ignoring Papyrus’ question and leaning over while simultaneously not falling out of his pot. Papyrus yawned somehow and climbed out of his racecar bed. 

“Good, what about you?” Papyrus asked, walking over to Flowey and picking him up.

“Surprisingly satisfied,” Flowey smiled. “Your brother is downstairs making breakfast,”

“Oh, really? I wonder what he’s making.”

Papyrus quickly de-wrinkled his scarf and walked downstairs. He passed a human on the way to the kitchen. “Hello, human!” He smiled, waving slightly. They waved back, smiling. Papyrus froze. “Wait, hUMAN!?”

Sans dashed out of the kitchen, a frying pan in his left hand, wearing a light blue apron that said ‘a pun a day makes it funny, but I couldn’t think of anything for this apron’ in small, Comic Sans text. “Papyrus! Good morning! Would you like some breakfast? You too, kid.”

“Sans, why is there a human in our house?” Papyrus whispered to his brother. Sans chuckled and pointed to the human with the pan.

“That’s Frisk, a human that fell down into the Underground,” Sans said, flipping the pancake in the pan with a little help of blue magic. Papyrus started to get excited when he remembered the deal he made earlier and stopped himself.

“Cool! Hello, human Frisk! I am Papyrus!” Papyrus smiled, placing one gloved hand on his chest and the other on his hipbone. Frisk smiled wider. Sans chuckled and decided it would be fun to reintroduce himself, if Papyrus was going to change his introduction dialogue.

“Hello, I am the magnificent Sans! I make the best pancakes for those who are hungry for breakfast!” Sans ginned, walking into the kitchen and coming back out with four plates of pancakes balanced on his arms. He placed them each at a seat of the table, “Enjoy!”

“Uh, Sans?” Frisk asked, “why are there four plates?”

“There are four of us, you, Pap, Flowey and I,”

“But… Flowey’s a flower?”

“But he’s also a monster, therefore needs to eat monster food. Kid, as monsters, our diets aren’t as complex as yours.”

“Ohhh,” Frisk smiled. They walked over to their seat and sat down, closely followed by Papyrus and Flowey, then Sans, who brought some syrup for the pancakes and placed it on the centre of the table. “This looks amazing, Sans!”

“Thanks kid, I’ve been practicing a skele- _ ton _ . Believe me, it’s surprisingly hard not to burn an egg, especially when you’re  _ cracking _ up,” Sans winked at his pun. Papyrus let out a light sigh, failing miserably to hide his smile of amusement. “Come on, bro, that was a real  _ rib tickler _ , wasn’t it?”

“Sans, stop,” Papyrus groaned.

“You’re smiling~.”

“I am and I hate it.”

Frisk burst into laughter, nearly falling off of their chair in the process. Sans joined in with a chuckle of his own while Papyrus just groaned, struggling to disguise his own amusement.

____________

“Kiddo, can I trust you with my bro? I need to go to my show,” Sans asked, looking back at Frisk from the doorway. Frisk nodded determinedly. The skeleton grinned and winked his left eye, before teleporting away.

Frisk felt their sins crawling on their back, remembering the first and only other time when Sans teleported in front of them. They were so glad they reset after Sans’ battle, they had been filled with so much regret. They were so happy to have had a new start, but hated themself for doing something so…  _ terrible _ to their friends.

They walked back to the couch and laced down. Flashes of blood and dust flashed over their closed eyes as they curled into a ball. Bone attacks and Gaster Blasters filled their memory, and they started to wonder why they were cursed with something so powerful. They had hurt so many people. They had  _ killed _ so many people. 

Frisk began to wonder why Sans would leave them with Papyrus. Why? They’d killed him before, they could do it again. And again. And again and again andagain andagainandagainandagain-

“Human?” A familiar voice erupted suddenly, momentarily distracting Frisk from their dark thoughts. They turned over and looked at Papyrus. “Frisk? Why are you crying? What happened?”

Frisk pushed themself into the back of the couch as Papyrus approached. “N-no. St-stay back!” Frisk cried, holding their hand in front of them. The skeleton stopped and opened his arms in a familiar, welcoming,  _ vulnerable _ gesture.

_ “...You're sparing me? Finally. Buddy. Pal. I know how hard it must be... to make that choice. To go back on everything you've worked up to. I want you to know... I won't let it go to waste. ... c'mere, pal.” Sans said, looking relieved as he opened his arms, offering a hug. _

_ Frisk ran forward as their sins crawled on their back, they nearly reached Sans. Nearly. They felt a familiar pain in their chest and looked down. They had been impaled by Sans’ attack. They looked at the skeleton. Sans’ eyesockets were empty, almost mirroring regret. “If we’re really friends… you won’t come back.” _

Frisk curled in on themself, shaking. “No, no, no I’m sorry, I’m sORRY, I’M SORRY!” They cried. Papyrus took a step back before realisation struck him. Despite the human’s pleas, he walked forward and sat on the opposite side of the couch.

“You poor human, did you have a nightmare?” Papyrus asked, offering a single hand. Frisk shook their head. Papyrus was slightly surprised. What could’ve evoked such a reaction? His expression fell slightly and he leaned over, slowly petting Frisk’s head as comfort. Slowly, very slowly, Frisk’s shaking slowed down and they looked at Papyrus.

“It’s okay, human, you’ll be okay. Papyrus is here for you,” Papyrus said, wiping away Frisk’s tears tenderly. Slowly, Frisk made their way over to Papyrus and sat in his lap, snuggling against surprisingly warm and soft bones. The skeleton wrapped one arm around Frisk and used the other to rub their back comfortingly. Frisk allowed themself to relax into him, just laying there comfortably.

When Sans got home, he came across an unusual, yet welcomed sight. Papyrus and Frisk, asleep together on the couch. Sans smiled and walked over to them, giving them both a soft bump of his teeth on their foreheads as a makeshift kiss. “Sleep well, Pap, kiddo, ‘cause someone really cares about you.”


	4. Day 4, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He he I can’t summary

“Kid… what? Why are you leaving?” Sans asked, feeling a little ball of betrayal weigh in his ribcage. Frisk looked at him, a slight change in their expression as they held Flowey.

“I… I need to. I need to free monsters. No one should be trapped down here,” Frisk mumbled, looking away from Sans.

“That’ll be hard to do on your own, kiddo,” Sans mumbled, “but if you’re sure, well, I can’t really stop you, can I?”

Frisk grinned. Sans sighed. This kid... “What do you need? I can give you a bag or something so you can hold more Items in your inventory? Or some more healing or defence items?”

“Sans, you don’t need to mother me!” Frisk teased light-heartedly. Sans sighed - as much as he hated to admit it, he had grown close to the kid the past three days.

“Sorry, kiddo, I wish you the best, ‘kay?” Sans smiled softly, slightly ruffling Frisk’s brown hair. “Stay safe out there, and avoid Undyne!”

Frisk smiled one last time and ran off, waving as they headed to Waterfall. They felt more determined than ever, so excited they forgot about their best friend.

____________

Sans walked back inside and headed to his own room. It was about time to empty the trash tornado. As much as Papyrus thought he never cleaned his room - he didn’t seem to understand organised chaos - he emptied out his trash tornado weekly.

He struggled little to get the annoying dog out of his tornado. Papyrus may have troubles with him, but Sans didn’t thanks to his baggy clothes. Though sometimes the dog looked at his legs like they were a meal… whatever. He was good company anyway.

He grabbed the bag of rubbish and opened the door, not expecting to see a lonely looking golden flower in a pot at the table. “Flowey? Weren’t you with Frisk?” Sans asked, hopping down the stairs. Flowey looked up at him.

“What do you mean? Where’s Frisk?” The flower asked. Sans frowned, a new expression for Flowey to experience.

“Didn’t they tell you? They left for New Home a while ago.” Sans said, motioning his skull towards the door. Flowey looked at it in alarm. 

“We have to find them! There’s something wrong with this timeline and we can’t risk them dying!” Flowey exclaimed. Sans’ eyesockets widened.

“Let’s go.”

______________

Sans teleported to Waterfall, potted Flowey in his grasp. He hadn’t felt so energized since the first time he had  _ needed _ to use his blue magic. He looked around, and soon his eyelights landed on a familiar human and a familiar fish monster.

_ Of course they’d find the only person I told them to avoid.  _ Without thinking, he teleported in between them, quickly throwing up his arm and summoning a defensive bone wall. He could hear Undyne step back, obviously confused. “Bones-?”

“Undyne, don’t hurt them,” Sans said quickly, his eyesockets void of any light. Suddenly there was a spear that quickly broke through the bone. Sans just dodged in time to avoid the spear, but Frisk wasn’t so lucky.

*16/20 HP

“Kid!” Sans exclaimed, looking back at Frisk instantly. They pulled out a cinnamon bun from their inventory and ate it.

*HP fully restored.

Sans sighed in relief - healing magic was never something he could do very well. He turned back to Undyne and dispelled the wall. “Okay, let’s talk over this civilly,”

“Sans, they’re the seventh Soul that we need! The last one! What are you doing!?” Undyne shouted. Sans stood his ground, bone-brows furrowing as he realised this wouldn’t be as easy as he had hoped.

“They have the ability to free us without any death, Undyne!” Sans shot back,  _ They’ve done it before, I just know it.  _ “Leave them be!”

“How do  _ you _ know anything about them, Sans?” Undyne growled, stepping forward intimidatingly. Sans’ grin fell slightly as he looked at her, eyelights tracing over her posture and expression.

“Just believe me!” Sans growled, feeling annoyed.  _ He had missed out on so much sleep.  _

“Why? Why are you protecting that human!?” Undyne yelled. Sans felt himself snap, too tired to deal with the small things.

“Because I made a promise! They genuinely  _ care _ about monsters! They will break the barrier!” Sans shouted, not remembering the last time he had raised his voice. Undyne sort of just… stopped. She stared a little before turning away silently and walking back to her house.

“Sans…?” Frisk asked, looking at the skeleton with wide eyes. Sans looked at them and smiled weakly. 

“I’m fine, kiddo, go befriend Undyne, okay?” Sans grinned, ruffling Frisk’s hair affectionately. They gasped happily, as if they just had their parents approve of a sleepover that was arranged last minute, and ran to Undyne’s house. Sans smiled affectionately and yawned. “Time to go to my show.”  _ God, I just wanna sleep.  _

______________

Despite Sans’ severe lack of sleep, his show went surprisingly smoothly. The audience was laughing and clapping as he made jokes and shared stories. He didn’t have a script, he didn’t need one. He was never entirely sure if it was his good memory or another one of his poor excuses to be lazy. Not that any of those excuses would work currently.

Nevertheless, Sans walked off stage smoothly, waving to the audience with a gloved hand as he disappeared behind the curtain. One he was sure no one was around, he sagged like an unsupported sack of potatoes. Sleep never sounded as wonderful as it did right now. Jeez, how does Paps do it? 

“Oh? Sans, darling, are you okay? You did great, by the way,” a robotic voice sounded. The sound of a wheel rolling against the floorboards let Sans know instantly who it was.

“Mettaton, I didn’t know you were here,” he said, surprisingly breathlessly despite the fact he did not have lungs. Honestly, he was willing to just fall over. ‘ _ Actually, I might do that…’ _

Sans let gravity take its course and pull him to the floor. He flinched when his skull landed with a loud crash against the floorboard, but other than that the landing was pretty ok. He heard the concerned gasp from Mettaton as he rolled over to Sans, “Sans! Are you okay?”

“‘M fine… just really tired, is all,” Sans slurred. He was starting to wonder how he got through his show without yawning at all. Somehow, Mettaton’s pixelated face showed deep concern. “Oh, and one thing before I pass out on you… don’t kill the human.”

Mettaton looked confused, but understood and nodded the best he could with his metal box body. Sans had learnt to read Mettaton a while after meeting him, longer than it did for him to analyse and judge the average monster, and he was so glad he did. 

Sans smiled, feeling reassured that both Papyrus and Frisk were going to be okay for a little while, and let himself fall into a dark, quiet, comforting abyss.

________

Sans didn’t know where he had expected to wake up, probably not the floor, but definitely not in a brightly decorated room with nothing but pictures of Mettaton on the walls. Was… was that Mettaton on a piano attempting to eat grapes? How does a robot eat anyway? Especially Mettaton, he doesn’t have a mouth. Well, Technically Sans doesn’t have a functional one either but that’s beside the point.

“Ah, S-Sans! Y-You’re a-awake!” A familiar stammering voice erupted. Sans rubbed his eyesockets and sat up. Something felt weird, like a weird jab in his soul. “I-If something feels weird, it’s the m-medicine I g-gave you.”

“Medicine? Alphys, why would I need medicine?” Sans asked, looking at the lizard monster. Alphys was holding a clipboard and pen, telling Sans she’d been taking notes. Mettaton was behind her, managing to look concerned, even through a pixelated screen.

“You haven’t been g-getting enough sl-sleep lately, Sans, a-and your, u-um, S-Soul has b-been severely damaged b-because of it… W-We managed to g-get it early, t-though!” Alphys explained. “It’s r-really unusual f-for something as simple as f-fatigue to do this m-much damage to a m-monster’s S-Soul. What ha-happened?”

Sans noted the hesitation in his friend’s voice as she mentioned his Soul for later. As for her question… he just hasn't had a chance to sleep. He had got Papyrus’ and his own sentry duties, his show, watching over the kid now too. Not that he said that. “I know if I sleep, the deal I made with my bro would be broken.” There, not the full truth, but it should suffice.

“S-Sans, you may be a s-skeleton, b-but you still need s-sleep,” Alphys stuttered, somehow managing to sound stern despite it. Sans nodded and got up, siding on the side of the bed. He looked to his left and noticed a bag, glowing with some red liquid. His sockets widened.

“Al, is that Determination?” He asked, staring at it. Alphys looked kind of surprised that he recognised it, but nodded anyway. 

“Y-Yeah. My old lab mentor and I did some research. As it turns out, s-skeleton t-types need a h-higher dose of D-Determination before they m-melt,” Alphys said. Sans summoned his soul examining it. Now, rather than it’s usual light blue and soft yellow, a striking red slowly made its way around the edge of the soul. He heard Alphys gasp.

“I’ve n-never seen a s-s-soul with two t-traits before,” Alphys said, remembering what she was going to ask the skeleton. “S-Sans, do you k-know h-how you have t-two soul t-traits?”

“Nope,” Sans answered shortly, quickly glancing up at Alphys before going back to staring at his soul, watching the Determination slowly frame the Patience and Justice of his soul. “But does this mean I now have three?”

“I-In a w-way, yes, it d-does. You m-might be t-the first monster t-to have d-determination and not m-m-melt.”


End file.
